I grant you that a choice between a neo-liberal and a fascist is extremely unpleasant. For ordinary people to vote to dismantle the protections against rampant capitalism for which their ancestors struggled, is pretty horrible.

But even that is not quite as horrible as becoming a Nazi. And if you are from an ethnic minority you have to resist or become a victim.

In France there is not actually a choice for anybody with the remotest claim to human decency. Do not sit on your hands while down the street they pull on their jackboots. Get out and vote for Macron. It is a duty to humanity.

Correct me if I am in error – but don’t you frequently post regarding the bias and misinformation provided by the BBC – and now here you are seeking to verify information by reference to the BBC.

L’Echo in Belgium is reporting that Macron has secured between 63 and 64%. They are also reporting a record low turnout and a very high number (10%) of blank or spoiled ballots.

If all of this is true then Macron will win – but over 60% of the electorate will have declined to vote for him. Going forward, and depending on policies and events, this could be something of a problem

Let’s hope the high water mark of the fascist nationalists has passed, not only in Europe but in Scotland also, and Ruth Davidson’s nasty British Nationalist Orange Shirts can be consigned to the dustbin along with rest.

Good points! There is no doubt that there are movements developing for political change across Europe and North America. I just don’t think that they are extremist or even populist. Rather than any substantial changes to the system I think that people just want it to work better and more honestly and Macron may just have got in front of a desire for moderate democratic change rather than extremism.

If (as you speculated recently) you were French, Sharp Ears, you would have recognised the clear allusion to Mitterrand’s solitary victory walk to the Panthéon in 1981, which is an icon in modern European political history, no matter how ludicrous you may have found it.

I found the whole mise en scène well conceived, starting with the choice of the Cour Napoléon, the placing of the stage in front I M Pei’s pyramid, the lighting and the dancing golden Victories. In another context Beethoven could have seemed “totally ludicrous” to some, but not when European unity is celebrating a resounding success in the face of constant attack. (Not forgetting that today France commemorates the defeat of the Nazis in 1945 and tomorrow is la Journée de l’Europe). The fact that Emmanuel Macron’s movement is called “En marche” completes the appropriateness of his solitary walk, which may have escaped the theatrical or poetical sensitivities of some joyless Anglo-Saxon observers.

It’s great isn’t it – denouncing Marine Le Pen as a “nazi” without a shred of proof of her actually being one.

While the whole time there are actual very REAL nazis sitting in the Ukrainian government – installed after a violent Washington backed coup which nobody in the west seems to care a hoot about. And I don’t use the word “nazi” like these pathetic modern virtue signallers do – ie as a term of abuse for someone who I disagree with.

The leaders of Right Sector and Svoboda in Ukraine and GENUINE nazis – real, honest to God, Bandera worshipping scum, who want to exterminate Russians and Jews. Indeed they massacred over 100 ethnic Russians at Odessa 3 years ago this week, not to mention their campaign of bombing the civilians in the Donbass. Thousands have died at the hands of these western backed nazis.

Yes, WESTERN BACKED nazis – including the EU. The Maidan coup was carried explicitly with the knowledge and indeed assistance of the EU. How do these fools square that with their love of the EU and all things peaceful and non racist?

Take a look at the Ukraine. This is what real nazis look like. This is genuine nationalist fascism in action – but not a squeak from the western hypocrite media because they are too busy virtue signalling. Makes me sick – and it’s generally the idiot, Guardian reading, virtue signalling left who are the absolute worst.

Good job you weren’t here at the time to see Craig firstly denying any neo-nazi involvement in the Ukrainian coup, then downplaying it as much as possible, even to the sickening extent of firstly claiming that the victims of the Odessa massacre must have been Russians agents/ thugs, and then when it was clear that they were unarmed innocent Ukrainians, he still put the blame squarely on Putin, not the blood-soaked Neo-Nazi murderers themselves, who were busy posting boasts & dreadful images online of their handiwork.

That’s my biggest concern now in the UK- working class people, and I’m w/class, voting against their own interests. I cannot believe how they will vote Tory time and again in England. Now I find my class the home of ignorance, bigotry, racism but worst of all, stupidity.

I really dont know what to think anymore – if I support the w/class, I am supporting idiots and thugs.. They spout bile like the Daily Mail and Sun which they buy in huge numbers.They are for Brexit, like turkeys voting for Xmas because the Tory press told them to.
It doesnt all mean I’m suddenly a LibDem or Blairite, but where do I go if I dont support the working class, the wealth producers? There must be many like me who dont know where to turn. Tories say they’ll attack pensions and they win a landslide in local elections – what the hell is going on?

Media control. The Tories have broadcast and the entire print media tied up. They are also miles ahead in data harvesting, marketing and micro messaging via social media.

Beyond that consumerism has moved onto a new level. Prescott said “we are all middle class now” in the 90s. 20 years later the reality is we are all yuppies now. That is the Neoliberal/Thatcherite plan. Millions of rdinary people have massive debts, a valuable asset and an insecure future, it’s natural to vote for the party who’s language reflects the reality of your life.

There is also the suicidal shift from a class based politics to an identity politics on the left which has whittled away most of the class conciousness that the right couldn’t get to.

The biggest problem is the massive number of people who don’t vote. The young are being shafted and still don’t go to the polls in great numbers.

I will give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that you are unaware of Macron’s role in producing austerity legislation that was then adopted by decree because the National Assembly would never pass it.

Lysas, Presumably you are referring to the Macron and El Khomri laws , though I don’t consider them as being austerity legislation, Though I was not against either law, neither was I in favour of forcing them through by decree. That said, things in France have to change, and on the whole I like Macron’s policies.

Voting for Macron now is risky IMHO. The French are largely left-leaning, and Macron’s neolib policies, inexperience, and being a “Rothschild bankster” are absolutely certain to make him extremely unpopular in 2-3 years from now. At that time, FN will have built an image of a credible alternative to him (as Le Pen has started working on this now, including perhaps renaming her party). I think it would have been safer to have Le Pen elected now, while opposition against her is so strong, with a high probability that her government will be unable to rule and fail within a year or two – than an anti-FN government failing.

As the French presidency had been reduced to a straight fight between a nationalist and France’s ‘Tony Blair’. No wonder so many stayed away from the polls.

“To avoid the trap of Europe fragmenting on the economy, security, and identity, we have to return to the original promises of the European project: peace, prosperity and freedom. We should have a real, adult, democratic debate about the Europe we want.”
Emmanuel Macron

“Mine is the first generation able to contemplate the possibility that we may live our entire lives without going to war or sending our children to war. ”
Tony Blair

““Mine is the first generation able to contemplate the possibility that we may live our entire lives without going to war or sending our children to war. ”
Tony Blair”

He was telling the truth – he wouldn’t have dreamt of serving himself, and his children most certainly wouldn’t be going off to war. The fighting and dying is for other people, and their children, to do!

I still vividly remember a time in the 1980s when I was sitting eating a meal in an outdoor restaurant in D.C. in my naval officer’s uniform and a member of the ruling class sitting at a nearby table was looking at me with visible contempt because of what I was wearing. Of course, he assumed that I was a member of the despised hoi polloi. I did not let him know that I, the holder of a First in Greats from Oxford and a Harvard Ph.D., had far more meritocracy credentials than he presumably did.

I take it that if you were indeed “a member of the despised hoi polloi”, as one would be without your immense distinction from such rabble, this “ruling class” individual would have been quite appropriate in his “looking at [you] with visible contempt”.

It’s fun to see today’s *phew, they bought the banker* responses of our own media. Adding the ‘abstentions’ and the spoiled ballots, they conclude that Le Pen actually came third. The ‘second’ party was the 37% or so who either didn’t vote or spoiled their papers. Spoiling your paper, perhaps with some trenchant comment on the fatuousness of the choice you are being offered, is a recognised method of protest in France, and at this election a record 4 million opted to do so. Not voting at all is termed ‘abstention’, there. But not here… Cue much op-ed mileage on the subject of the protest non-vote.

But whoa! What of the UK’s invisible runners-up? The turnout at the 2015 election was 66%. Which means that 34% ‘abstained’, in French terms (that’s not including spoiled ballots, which aren’t so much of a feature here). Of course this wasn’t a protest vote, and didn’t signify massive discontent with the options on offer. Nothing of the sort. The options were perfect, and the best Tories won.

I don’t know much about Le Pens policies but I did like the idea of France putting out of NATO. The criminal club of NATO needs to be disbanded. The US is bringing the World to the brink of WW3, the ending of NATO could end this.

Fascism is the result of the failure of the left to provide an alternative.
— Leon Trotsky

Trotsky was on to something there. I would update that quote and include the the moribund noliberal monster that keeps shuffling along despite 30 years of failure to show for it.

The ruling class couldn’t have dreamed up a better distraction than the toxic nonsense that is identity politics, which has splintered the left and rendered it impotent and pathetic. While the left staggers round in a daze, and liberals like Mr. Murray remain deluded, and thus unable to recognize that the establishment is a busted flush beyond redemption or repair, the
destruction of Western democracy continues apace.

Stop blaming Putin or the other proto-villains served up by the propaganda machine (aka the media) to prevent you from seeing what is in plain sight.